N.Z. PRAISED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1944, Page 4

N.Z. PRAISED

REWARD FOR SERVICE

REHABILITATION SCHEMES

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. New Zealand's rehabilitation plans will be featured in the discussions at a Sydney conference this month of delegates from all organisations concerned with the re-establishment of servicemen and women in civilian life. The Employers' Federation, the Chamber of Manufacturers, agricultural bodies, trade unions and exservicemen's organisations will be represented. What New Zealand is doing for the returned soldier has been widely publicised here by Mr. K. McLeod Bolton, chairman of the rehabilitation committee of the New South Wales branch of the Returned Soldiers' League, who recently made a visit of investigation to the Dominion. Preference Means Something "Repatriation, rehabilitation, vocational training and returned soldier preference really mean something in New Zealand," he says, writing in the • Sydney Morning Herald. Compared with what the New Zealand Government has done for its returned soldiers already, Australia has been toying with the question, he continues. "The Dominion has enacted tne most comprehensive and generous Rehabilitation Act in the British Commonwealth. It is really getting something done, and is not counting the cost. Right from the discharge of the serviceman or woman, when £10 to £25 mufti allowance is given, compared with a much smaller amount allowed to our people; through a generous system of loans up to £4500 for dairy farms, £6000 for sheep farms; with supplementary loans for ecjuipment and tne like; to housing, training and every other angle of rehabilitation, New Zealand is so far ahead of Australia that she is practically out of sight. Spectacular Achievements Mr. Bolton lists New Zealand's "spectacular achievements" in the rehabilitation field compared with what has been done in Australia. He stresses that in New Zealand preference to returned soldiers is regarded as the ex-serviceman's right, and is not a controversial subject as in Australia. He also cites instances of New Zealand co-opera-tion between unionists and exsoldier trainees, contrasting this position with Australia, where some unions have shown themselves unwilling to assist in rehabilitation schemes. Mr. Bolton further compares New Zealand's rehabilitation principle of "reward for meritorious service" with Australia's War Cabinet minute on post-war reconstruction, which states specifically that, "any benefits are not to be regarded as reward for service." Summing tip that New Zealand leads Australia in returned soldier preference in land settlement, business re-establishment., trade training and housing, Mr. Bolton declares "Australia has a mueh b'Vger rehabilitation iob to do than New Zealand, and it is time we really got on with it."